I have just started getting hooked on the HF freq's I hear on this wonderful site and I was wondering if someone can helpme with some much needed information?

I own a Radio Shack PRO-82 hand held scanner and I was wondering if I could program and recieve these HF Freq'sI live outside Boston so I don't know if I could pick anything up. Also I don't know if the scanner I have is good enough

Here is my two cents worth on HF. I've been listening to aircraft communications on HF for almost 30 years. My current receiver is a Yaesu FRG-8800. It's an old receiver but it does the job. I actually bought that receiver for the sole purpose of listening to the aircarft HF bands. In all those years I have only used a long wire antenna. This is simply a long length of wire that you connect to the back of the receiver and then run outside. I've got mine secured to the gutter of my house (insulated from the gutter of course) and a tree at the far corner of my yard. It's a very simple set up but it works quite well for me here in Long Island, New York.

With this long wire antenna I can hear NY Radio during the day on 6577 loud and clear. I can aslo hear Gander Radio on 8864, 8831, 8891 and 8879 during the day. The reception of Gander Radio is not that great during the day but with a better antenna, it would most likely improve the reception greatly.

At night it's a whole different story. Gander comes in loud and clear on 5616 and 5649. You can also hear Shanwick Radio and Santa Maria radio clearly at night too. Shanwick can be heard on the same Gander freqs as well as 2971, 2872, 2899, etc. Santa Maria can be heard on 5598 and 3016. Iceland radio can aslo be heard on 8891 (Gander can be heard here too) and sometimes on 4675.

But it goes even further than that. I can hear flights over Africa on 8894 and flights coming out of South America on 6649. San Francisco Radio can also be heard although that doesn't come in too well by me. But they can be heard on 5547, 5574 and 5643. The best time for this would be late at night or very early in the morning (well before sunrise).

So, even though I have a very simple long wire antenna, I can hear quite a bit. Someday I'll upgrade my antenna and receiver but for now it's ok for me. BTW, all the freqeuncies I mentioned are upper side band (USB) so whatever receiver you decide to get, it must be able to receive LSB and USB transmissions. A straight AM shortwave receiver won't work.

This controller/pilot interface is called CPDLC and is used among other things by aircraft to provide position reports to controllers without communicating this by voice on HF. This drastically reduces the amount of HF communications you'll hear from aircraft equipped with CPDLC.

But even with CPDLC, pilots still need to call on HF for a radio check and a selcal check when they first enter oceanic airspace. They will aslo provide their "exit" point which basically is the next airspace they will enter. In the case of eastbound oceanic flights, they'll say something like this: "Gander, Gander, Luthansa 401, CPDLC, Shanwick is next." After that they'll be told that "no voice reports are necessary" and also "VHF frequencies will be assigned by CPDLC" if that is the case. Or they'll be told "At 30W call Shanwick on 2899".

When the flights reach the next airspace, Shanwick for example at 30W, then they'll come on HF once again for a radio and selcal check just like before.

Has the number of transmissions gone down? I'd say yes, but at the same time I believe that the number of overseas flights has gone up over the years. There's still a lot of action on HF; still worth listening to